KBzine: the original kitchen and bathroom industry e-news - since 2002
28th January 2021

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We have Mail: Swain retires from Franke

Hello Jan,

Further to your item last week: 'John Swain retires from Franke after 25 years' service', as someone who worked long ago for Petrate, the first Franke UK distributor, I was always under the impression that the sinks had been introduced into the UK by the owner, Brian King. The story, as I recall, was that Brian trundled around the country in an old Skoda, selling sinks from the back.

Franke UK arrived some time later and divided the UK up into areas. The ex Sales Manager of Petrate was John Perkin who left to join Franke and was instrumental in the downfall of his former employer.

Whatever the story was, Franke and Duncan Marr seem to have forgotten the work done by Brian, who was also responsible for the first appearance of a number of other products, still available to this day.

Regards
Dave Hicks
[email protected]

Here we have a response from Franke:

Dear Mr Hicks,

Thank you very much for your post on the KBZine and sharing your knowledge of the history of the Franke brand before Duncan Marr began selling from his garage! 

The Franke brand and indeed the entire kitchen industry has such a  colourful history, and it's always useful to gain more knowledge and perspectives around how things happened when the brand was in it's infancy in the UK market. 

Once again, thanks for taking the time to share your understanding with us. 

Your sincerely 

Tracey at Franke UK Ltd 

7th June 2013